Archive for the ‘Tesla’ Category

Polestar hints that its first all-electric model will adopt a "fastback" shape.

Volvo’s electric performance division is finally charging forward, the plug-in hybrid Polestar 1 getting ready for production, while the sub-brand’s first all-electric model is set to be “fully revealed in the coming weeks,” it confirmed today.

According to a statement, “The car will go into production shortly after the long-range hybrid Polestar 1, which will enter production later this year.” The automaker also emphasized that Polestar 2 will take direct aim at Tesla’s Model 3.

Breaking Product News!

The teaser shows an overhead view of the Polestar 2’s rounded back end, so not much to go on beyond the fact that it features very aggressively raked rear glass flowing into a rather short trunk lid. That would suggest either a hatchback or an edgy crossover design, Polestar calling it a “fastback.”

It has massive offshore oil reserves that have helped fuel its economy, but as far as millions of Norwegian motorists are concerned, they’d rather spend their money on an electric vehicles.

Battery-cars accounted for a record 31.2% of all new vehicles sold in the Scandinavian nation last year, according to the Norwegian Road Federation, up from 20.8% in 2017. And the shift away from gas and diesel is only expected to accelerate as Norway has set a goal of eliminating sales of vehicles using internal combustion engines by the middle of the decade.

Stay Plugged In!

Last year’s surge “was a small step closer to the 2025 goal,” Oeyvind Solberg Thorsen, head of the NRF, told a news conference in Oslo on Wednesday.

Tesla’s New Year is off to a shaky start, investors driving down its stock price while fretting about the company’s unexpectedly weak fourth-quarter sales and the potential hit the carmaker will take in 2019 as it watches its federal tax incentives phase out.

It wasn’t all bad news. Tesla’s total 2018 sales nearly matched what the company had delivered in all previous years combined, and after suffering through what CEO Elon Musk had once described as “production hell,” the Tesla assembly plant in Fremont, California, appears to be humming along. But deliveries during the final three months of 2018 fell about 1.5% below analysts’ expectations. And now, Tesla has to worry about what will happen as the $7,500 tax credits offered by the federal government begins to phase out.

Business News!

“We are taking steps to partially absorb the reduction of the federal EV tax credit (which, as of Jan. 1, dropped from $7,500 to $3,750),” Tesla said in a statement, adding that, “Starting today, we are reducing the price of Model S, Model X and Model 3 vehicles in the U.S. by $2,000.” (more…)

Tesla's Elon Musk is looking to sell Model 3s all the way til midnight to make sure buyers get the full $7,500 tax credit.

Two nights ago, Tesla boss Elon Musk sent out a tweet telling his millions of followers that there was 48 hours left to buy a new EV and still qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit from the U.S. government.

Nothing wrong for being a shill for your company and its products on social media, but it’s becoming more clear as to why he was so motivated to try to drum of up sales for a company that supposedly has a lengthy waiting list for new Model 3 sedans.

Happy New Year!

Tesla has more than 3,000 Model 3s left in inventory in the United States as of Sunday, according to website Electrek, which cited people familiar with the matter. (more…)

Tesla Inc. established a leasing operation in China: another step toward growing sales in China.

Tesla Inc. is growing internationally while simultaneously resolving its battle with federal regulators in the United States.

The California-based electric-vehicle maker registered a wholly owned financial leasing company in China, with registered capital of $30 million, according to China’s National Enterprise Information Publicity System.

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The move to open a leasing operation in China falls in line with its plans to begin selling and building its cars in China. The company is seeking contractors to build its $2 billion gigafactory near Shanghai. The company has been moving quickly to establish a hold in China since the government eased local ownership laws for foreign EV makers. (more…)

If Elon Musk hopes to find a way around L.A.’s famously treacherous traffic he still has a long way to go, but the entrepreneur demonstrated what could be one answer Wednesday night by officially opening the Boring Co.’s first test tunnel in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne.

The 1.14-mile route that begins at the headquarters of SpaceX, one of the companies run by Musk, was anything but smooth, one reporter taken along for a demonstration ride complaining of motion sickness. But the pilot tunnel was simply meant to demonstrate Musk’s belief that “to solve the problem of soul-destroying traffic, roads must go 3D,” according to a post on the Boring Company website.

We Dig for News!

Capping what has been a tough year for the 47-year-old entrepreneur, the opening of the first tunnel could provide momentum for Musk’s plan to build similar structures across the country. The City of Chicago has already given the Boring Co. a tentative contract to develop an underground link from the city’s downtown to its busy O’Hare Airport. Other proposed projects could see links between Washington D.C. and its suburbs, even one running all the way from the capital to New York City.

A driver starts up the new Hyundai Santa Fe simply by using her fingerprint.

If you own a relatively recent smartphone odds are you no longer have to bother remembering a passcode, instead relying on fingerprint or facial recognition. Now, it seems, automakers are starting to move in the same direction.

Hyundai has pulled the wraps off the new Chinese version of the 2019 Santa Fe and, buyers in that market will be offered the ability to equip the SUV with a fingerprint recognition system that can lock or unlock the vehicle while also starting the vehicle. Depending on which of multiple users the vehicle recognizes, it will even set up automatically such things as seat position and sideview mirrors.

In the Right Key!

But Hyundai isn’t alone. A number of other automakers are looking at other ways to replace the traditional vehicle key or wireless keyfob with things like wearable bracelets and smartphone apps that an owner can share with friends and family.

Looks like the new Tesla Easter egg is a lot hot air, or at least is sounds like it.

If you’ve ever been in a car on a trip when a smell invades the cabin of your vehicle, then good news: Elon Musk and Tesla have the audio to pair with your olfactory experience: a fart app.

Musk confirmed the company was working on it in a tweet: “Tesla (fart emoji) app almost done. Important to get every note right!” The fart app can be found in the Easter egg drawer of Tesla models that have received the most recent software update.

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To be clear, it’s not a euphemism for something else, instead, yes, it sounds like someone in the car – or the car itself – is passing gas. (more…)

Elon Musk expressed interest in buying one of the plants General Motors plans to close in the near future.

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk is ready to play “Let’s Make a Deal” with General Motors — again.

Not, Musk doesn’t want to challenge GM CEO Mary Barra to appear on the television game show, but he did tell reporter Lesley Stahl on the CBS news show 60 Minutes he would be willing to buy one of the plants GM plans to shut down in the near future.

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“It’s possible that we would be interested. If they were going to sell a plant or not use it that we would take it over,” he said during the interview. (more…)